Workers stay put as economic anxiety deepens: Indeed survey
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES — Roughly 40% of American workers are unhappy in their current jobs, but most won’t leave. That’s the finding from a recent Harris Poll conducted for Indeed, which reveals how deeply economic anxiety is reshaping the labor market.
Workers are prioritizing job security over job satisfaction, fearing that jumping ship could leave them jobless in an unpredictable economy.
“For employed workers and even for job seekers, stability is the name and the game,” says Priya Rathod, career trend expert at Indeed, told Fortune.
Despite the 139,000 new roles added in May and unemployment holding steady at 4.2%, the mood among workers is increasingly uneasy.
Nearly half of those surveyed by Indeed said they’re staying put because they’re afraid they might be laid off from a new job.
A chilling effect across the workforce
A wave of high-profile layoffs in 2025, from giants like Meta, Microsoft, and Disney, has added fuel to the fire.
“When [someone] hears about people being laid off, it’s not just things [they’re] reading or seeing in the media, it’s things that [they’re] experiencing in their community or network,” Rathod explained.
Other surveys echo this rising sense of dread. Mentions of “uncertainty” on Glassdoor jumped 80% year-over-year this April. Meanwhile, ZipRecruiter’s Job Seeker Confidence Index found that over a third of job hunters now believe new tariffs will make it even harder to land employment.
Pessimism hits entry-level workers hardest
Only 44% of workers in May said they had a positive outlook for the next six months, the lowest confidence level since Glassdoor began tracking the metric in 2016.
Entry-level employees are especially pessimistic, weighed down by fewer safety nets and fewer opportunities.
Still, Rathod urged caution over despair: “Prepare, don’t panic. It benefits job seekers to figure out what they may want to do next and learn the complementary skills that open doors to adjacent roles.”
